Shocking sex attacks by former Liverpool priest on young boys finally revealed


A former Liverpool parish priest was today locked up for a catalogue of sickening sex attacks on young boys decades ago.
Father Francis William Simpson, now 71, had been parish priest at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Kirkstone Road West, Litherland, before moving to Chorley in 2016.
On Friday a jury at Bolton Crown Court convicted him of nine counts of indecent assault following a 10 day trial.
The court heard Simpson sexually touched the boys while a priest at Worsley Mesnes St Jude’s Church in Wigan during the 1980s.
They were not believed to have been linked to his time in Litherland some years later.
He was placed on the Sex Offender’s Register for ten years and is banned from working with children in the future.
Simpson will never be able to return to the church as a minister after his sentence.
Simpson, now of Knightscliffe Crescent in Shevington, Wigan, had been suspended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool since his arrest by Greater Manchester Police last year.
December 2018
Paedophile priest who abused four young boys in the 80s found guilty
A perverted Lancashire clergyman has been found guilty of historical child sex crimes.
Francis Simpson molested four boys while serving as a parish priest between 1980 and 1982.
Bolton Crown Court heard that the abuse, which involved sexual touching over clothing, took place on visits to the boys’ homes, in his car when taking them on trips and, in one victim’s case, when in class at school.
The age range of the victims at the time was between seven and 15.
The sickening offences took place at Worsley Mesnes St Jude’s Church in Wigan but he later moved to St Chad’s in Chorley in 2016.
Simpson, of Knightscliffe Crescent, Shevington, had denied nine counts of indecent assault. But after eight days of evidence and two days’ deliberations, a trial jury returned nine guilty verdicts against the 71-year-old.
Records from 2017 show Simpson was on “administrative leave” from St Chad’s in Chorley, where he was appointed in 2016. Prior to this, he had been a parish priest in Litherland, Merseyside.